The Best Typography-Based Sites of July 2014

August 4, 2014

This is the sixth installment of my new monthly feature on Type & Grids where I pick my favorite type-driven websites from the previous month and then write a little about the typographic details behind the design. You can check out last month’s post for June here.

Benvingut Bisgràfic Barcelona

This site is a great example of what can be done using only free fonts. Sorts Mill Goudy and Cutive Mono are limited fonts that lack additional weights but they are both available for free. Even with a limited typographic palette, Benvingut Bisgràfic Barcelona still manage to do something exciting and engaging with the type.

Readymag

Mixing two similar sans-serifs is generally considered a bad idea. However, Readymag seem to know what they are doing when they combine Nobel and Avenir. Nobel is almost used as a display version of Avenir by being set only at large sizes. It’s an interesting and unusual approach but I think it works.

Few

I’m surprised that I don’t see Grad combined with Proxima Nova more often. Both are designed by Mark Simonson and I think they work nicely together. I love seeing the details of Grad when it’s set at a large size.

Sharon Daddi

I love the combo of GT Walsheim with Sanchez. Although I’m not sure introducing the third typeface, Droid Sans, into the mix was really needed. I feel like you already have a geometric sans and a slab serif so what is the need for a humanist sans on top of that? This is still a nice site — just the use of Droid Sans feels out of place to me.

Headspace

Brandon Grotesque really makes a perfect match for this style of quirky, “flat design” illustration. I feel like Brandon Grotesque might be getting a little overused but this site makes excellent use of the typeface. The type effortlessly switches between uppercase and italics to keep things fun, dynamic and engaging.

The Workshop

When I featured this site a few weeks ago on Typewolf, it was using Calluna and Proxima Nova. I guess they had a change of heart because it’s now using Chronicle Display and Apercu. I’m not sure I like it as much — Apercu just feels almost too quirky to be combined with a serious typeface like Chronicle.

Keep Up With the Latest in Web Typography

If you enjoyed this post then you’ll probably really like Typewolf, my other side project. Typewolf features the best type-centric designs from around the web with the web fonts identified. It’s an excellent resource to check out the next time you need to choose a typeface for your next web project. You can follow Typewolf on Twitter and Tumblr or sign up to receive a weekly email summary.